Pumpokol language

Pumpokol (Pumpokol: gebeŋ-aj^[1]) is one of the Yeniseian languages, formerly spoken by the Pumpokol people (Gebéŋ). It has been extinct since the 18th century. It shares many features with the ancient Xiongnu^[5] and Jie languages,^[6] and according to Alexander Vovin, Edward Vajda, and Étienne de la Vaissière, is closely related to them. It is poorly attested, the only available lexicon amounting to about 65 words, and some of them have been identified as being Yugh, not Pumpokol.^[7]

Pumpokol
Gebèng-ai[1]
Native to	Russia
Region	Yenisey
Ethnicity	Pumpokols
Extinct	1740[2]
Language family	Dené–Yeniseian? Yeniseian Pumpokolic[3][4] Pumpokol
Language codes
ISO 639-3	xpm
Linguist List	xpm
Glottolog	pump1237
The historical, pre-contact range of Pumpokol.[3]

Classification

It has traditionally been viewed as being grouped with Arin in an Arin-Pumpokol subfamily of Southern Yeniseian, but Vajda 2024 challenges this, stating that "Arin, Pumpokol and Kott-Assan display no shared innovations to suport them as an opposite "Southern Yeniseian" branch" of Yeniseian, reflecting only their geographical position rather than a genealogical grouping.^[3] According to O. Tailleur, it should be considered a dialect of the Ket language, as most materials labeled 'Pumpokol' are in reality of Ketic affiliation, not Pumpokol. Furthermore, the term 'Pumpokol' was originally geographic, referring to the name of a town and a former district (volost),^[8] originating from Khanty pum-poxəl "grassy village".^[3][7] Pumpokols and Yughs frequently mixed with each other in the Pumpokol volost.

Phonology

Pumpokol is notable among the Yeniseian languages in that the phoneme /s/ is often replaced by /t/. This idiosyncrasy of Pumpokol seems to be shared with Jie, suggesting that Jie is more closely related to Pumpokol than other Yeniseian languages. For example the Jie word kot 'catch' seems to be a cognate with the Ket word qos, having the same sound change.^[6]

Moreover, this aforementioned characteristic of Pumpokol has been used by Vajda to demonstrate that Yeniseian-derived hydronyms in northern Mongolia (the southernmost known extent of Yeniseian influence), -tat, -dat, -tet, -det, -tom, -dɨt are exclusively Pumpokolic.^[6][1] Since the Jie, as a tribe of the Xiongnu, are likely to have come from the same area, rather than further north, this finding lends credence to the possibility that Jie is a Pumpokolic language.

Vowels

The reconstructed vowels of Pumpokol are as follows, based off of G. F. Müller's materials:^[1]

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i [i]	ɨ [ɨ]	u [u]
Close-mid	e [e]		o [o]
Open-mid	ɛ [ɛ]		ɔ [ɔ]
Open		a [a]

Consonants

According to G. F. Müller's notes, the consonants of Pumpokol are as follows:^[1]

		Labial	Dental	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Laryngeal/ Pharyngeal
Plosive	voiceless	p [p]	t [t]	(tʼ [tʲ])	k [k]	q [q]	(ʔ [ʔ])1
	voiced	b [b]	d [d]	(dʼ [dʲ])	g [g] (gʼ [gʲ])
Fricative	voiceless	f [f]	s [s]			x [χ], xʼ [χʲ]	-h- [h]?2
	voiced	(v [v])	(z [z])	(ž [ʒ])
Affricate		(pf [pf] pʰ [pʰ])	c [t͡s]	č [t͡ʃ] (dž [d͡ʒ])
Nasal		m [m]	n [n]	(nʼ [nʲ])	ŋ [ŋ]
Lateral			l [l]	(lʼ [lʲ])
Approximant				j [j]
Trill			r [r]

1. [ʔ] only occurs as a prosodic device of tone, as in other Yeniseian languages.^[1]
2. Pumpokol word-initial [h] only sometimes corresponds to Arin [k], and is not present in other Yeniseian languages.

The phonemes ⟨č⟩, ⟨dʼ⟩, and ⟨dž⟩ are allophones of ⟨č⟩, ⟨k⟩ and ⟨g⟩ are allophones of ⟨k⟩, and ⟨x⟩, ⟨q⟩ and ⟨xʼ⟩ are allophones of ⟨χ⟩.^[1] Thus, the phonemes in brackets are not really phonologically relevant.

Vocabulary

Selected Pumpokol words are presented here, sourced from Werner 2005.^[1]

Word	Meaning	Comment
ab	father
am	mother
ak	to lie down
hóxon	forest, tree
oksɨ	tree
efig	leaf	glossed as 'leaves'
eg	egg	cf. Ket ɛˀj
fala	son
falla	boy, son
hixem	Sun
xaj	mountain
xečet	growth
kus	horse
libit bojarget	love	literally 'he loves me', cf. Yugh ľúbitboaʰːrgeť id.
meža	measure	Russian loan
píkola	daughter, girl	Kott lítʼuli
hukút	house, village	Ket, Yugh hus

Pumpokol words in Pallas 1789[9]
Russian gloss	бог	небо	вечер	лес	дерево	земля	поле	снег	вода	дух	вино
English translation	God	sky, heaven	evening	forest	tree	earth	field	snow	water	spirit	wine
Pumpokol translation	еч	еч	бичиди, бись	акь	оксы	бинг	ембагь	тыгь, бечь	уль	бей	бино

An example of a noun - фохириць 'pig'

An example of a gerund - ирдлег 'work'

An example of an adjective - етыкеть 'healthy'

An example of a third-person pronoun - буегь 'they'

Numerals

Pumpokol numerals^[1][10]

No.	Numerals (Werner 2005)	Numerals (Pallas 1789)
1	xúta	ху́та
2	hínɛaŋ ~ hínɛa	нинеангь
3	dóŋa	донга
4	ciaŋ	ци́ангь
5	héjlaŋ	Хе́илангь
6	aɡɡiaŋ ~ áɡiang	Аггьянгь
7	ónʼaŋ	Оньянгь
8	hinbasiaŋ	Г̧инба́ссїангь
9	xúta-xamóssa-xaíaŋ	Ху́та-ямосса-хайянгь
10	xaiáŋ (xajáŋ)	Хайянгь
11	xúta-iga-xaiáŋ
12	hínɛa-xaiáŋ
20	hédiaŋ
30	doŋbaksɨn
40	situdi
50	xeiltudi
60	altudi
70	óntudi
80	hinbassitudi
90	xatósaxa
100	útamsa	Утамса
200	hin-útamsa
300	doŋ-útamsa
400	ci-útamsa
500	xeil-útamsa
600	ag-útamsa
700	on-útamsa
800	hintassi-útamsa
900	xatóssa-xága-útamsa
1000	xa-útamsa	Ха-утамса

References

1. Werner, Heinrich (2005). Die Jenissej-Sprachen des 18. Jahrhunderts. Veröffentlichungen der Societas Uralo-Altaica. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. ISBN 978-3-447-05239-9.
2. "The ASJP Database - Wordlist Pumpokol". asjp.clld.org. Retrieved 2024-08-04.
3. Vajda, Edward (2024-02-19), Vajda, Edward (ed.), "8 The Yeniseian language family", The Languages and Linguistics of Northern Asia, De Gruyter, pp. 365–480, doi:10.1515/9783110556216-008, ISBN 978-3-11-055621-6, retrieved 2024-06-26
4. Fortescue, Michael D.; Vajda, Edward J. (2022). Mid-holocene language connections between Asia and North America. Brill's studies in the indigenous languages of the Americas. Leiden ; Boston: Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-43681-7.
5. Vovin, Alexander (2000). "Did the Xiong-nu speak a Yeniseian language?". Central Asiatic Journal. 44 (1): 87–104. JSTOR 41928223.
6. Vovin, Alexander; Vajda, Edward; de la Vaissière, Etienne (2016). "Who Were the *Kjet (羯) and What Language Did They Speak?". Journal Asiatique. 304 (1): 125–144. doi:10.2143/JA.304.1.3146838.
7. Georg, Stefan; Georg, Stefan (2007). Introduction, phonology, morphology. A descriptive grammar of Ket (Yenisei-Ostyak) / Stefan Georg. Folkestone: Global Oriental. ISBN 978-1-901903-58-4.
8. Batashev, Mikhail S. (June 2013). "Ethnic History of Indigenous Peoples of the Yeniseysky Uyezd in the 17 Century and Their Fortunes". Journal of Siberian Federal University. Humanities & Social Sciences.
9. Pallas, Peter Simon (1786). Linguarum totius orbis vocabularia comparativa (in Russian). Schnoor.
10. Pallas, Peter Simon (1789). Linguarum Totius Orbis Vocabularia Comparativa, Pars 2.

External links

• Pumpokol basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database